The Human Project – Clarion Call

It’s been a while since we’ve heard new music from UK technical punk act The Human Project.  After gaining some serious ground with their 2013 full length, Origins, the band earned a spot amongst genre leaders A Wilhelm Scream, The Shell Corporation, Samuel Caldwell’s Revenge and Darko, then it was relative radio silence.  But if you thought six years would dull their sonically aggressive, politically driven edge, then think again.  

The Leeds four-piece is back with Clarion Call, an eleven song technically ambitious powerhouse that isn’t afraid to explore sweeping instrumental song intros that usher in a vast sense of scale that emboldens any call to action.  Opener “Desperate Times” slowly builds momentum, layering on an orchestraic sense atmosphere in the opening moments. The track reverberates in suspense for about the first minute before introducing an array of soft, reserved vocals amidst a minimalist layer of guitars for another stretch before launching headlong into a speedy technical salvo, not unlike the many similar instances of Propagandhi.  The foreboding sense that modern society is on an inevitable crash course collides in sister track “Desperate Measures,” which shreds heavy with a metal-tinged soul and explodes into guttural bursts of vocal shrapnel.  Later songs like “Knocked For Six” and “What We Always Do” further exemplify that balance between breakdown and blow-up. The Human Project has always existed with one foot squarely planted in order, and the other firmly in chaos, and Clarion Call is no exception.

Political condemnation fuels their drive in songs like “That One Percent,” in which they criticize the rich’s overriding public agenda on the grounds that they, “represent the interest of the few.” “We need to know who pulls the strings,” the band insists a track later on “The Rhetoric,” as they plead to pull back the curtain and reveal more transparency.  Accusations of a global elite without conscience in which “poverty perpetuates their greed” sear red hot in “A Debt To Society,” leading to the final rally cry of the title track, in which they remind listeners that as a majority “we are still dangerous.” The Human Project preaches action to a complacent populous with the hope of stirring an awakening.  

Overall, Clarion Call is an effective political manifesto tightly wrapped in an edgy punk rock package.  The Human Project is passionate about social justice, and their call to arms against corruption and exploitation is uncompromising.  That they preach such ideals with unrelenting technical speed and emotion only bolsters the authenticity and sentiment fuelling their resolve.  The Human Project does not fail to impress, Clarion Call is a top notch dose of technical punk that fans of A Wilhelm Scream and Propagandhi won’t want to miss.